Too many dreams to count

November 8, 2009 at 6:18 pm · Filed under Civil Rights, On Body & Health, On Imagination, On Music, Film and FolkArt, On Personal Development, On Power, On Radical Feminism-Humanitarianism, On Self-Expression, On Violence, Poetry & Commentary ·Tagged , , , ,

I have a dream…that assholes won’t someday be the only people in charge.

I have a dream…that people, humans on earth, of all creeds, races, and genders will set aside petty differences and learn to communicate more effectively with one another and do away with the need for escalating violence (for the most part, anyway).

I have a dream…that greater numbers of people would read and listen to the words of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and honestly try to understand his message as applying to all people, and especially those confronted with the most grievous oppression.

Violence appears to beget violence; however, I understand in certain cases why it may be necessary.  With that said, however, the cases where it is appropriate are few and limited and require ethical fortitude to assess the situation.  As an example, I offer up rape and molestation.  In such cases, victims have a right to behave violently in self-defense AND seek ex post legal remedy– there is no question in my mind.  Self-defense may warrant all types of violence, as with battling to protect a community during a hostile invasion or whacking an unwelcome intruder with a baseball bat to protect your home and children. We have rules to guide our social interactions, some of which have become laws, some thought to be inalienable, natural rights.  The right to self-defense is one such natural right.

Hence why I didn’t like Michael Moore’s latest movie “Capitalism: A Love Story.”  The part where he was adding amendments to the Bill of Rights for such things like a right to a job — this irritated me because I believe we need widespread soul-searching and discussion on the economic systems we collectively embrace because our economics have to change first and foremost, and some statement written on paper promising what can’t yet be delivered will only serve to further undermine the U.S. Constitution, which is already on life support.  His ploy might seem cute, but it muddies the very serious question we must  ask ourselves: what really are our rights as people?

We need to stop and seriously consider what rights we as people—not simply Americans—DO have, then separate these natural rights from the rest, marking them as special and inalienable and above all others.  It will be a short list, albeit one of the most important endeavors we ever set a pencil or keystroke to.

To simply create more laws isn’t the answer, not if we can’t understand what those laws mean or how to go about ensuring them.  I believe in the inalienable right to ultimately do with my body as I see fit, whether that be consuming drugs or foods others shun or committing suicide (as with physician-assisted euthanasia).  Not that all things I may want to put in my body have to be made available, just that, while I understand communities and friends are affected by the choices of others, this body is mine to use and abuse as I see fit.  My body belongs to me, period.

Body-builders and athletes abuse their bodies, but because doing so may involve talent, we accept it.  It’s perfectly legal to be a slut but not a whore — chew on that for a while.  Cigarette smokers face public ostracism and severe taxation (to pay for somebody else’s healthcare, certainly not my own) just because we’re addicts, and yet it’s perfectly legal to drink ourselves into a puddle in the bar parking lot.  But because I feel I have the right to drink bleach doesn’t mean I have any desire to do so — just like knowing what my rights are.

But then again, that doesn’t absolve an individual of responsibility from caring for others and aiming to protect the welfare of us all.

The topic of abortion is a little stickier since it involves yourself and a potential person in your body.  I continue to feel that so long as the potential person is dependent on your body for support, you are in the driver’s seat in making decisions affecting both of you.  HOWEVER, that doesn’t mean I like the idea of abortions, especially late-term ones, but there do appear times when they may be for the best.  The greater issue here seems to be that an attempt to force a potential mother against her will to carry a fetus to full-term is a recipe for bad relations for all involved.  We are not there by her side daily to protect the fetus, and therefore would have no way of knowing if her miscarriage was spontaneous or a self-induced result.  By that rationale, we risk criminalizing mothers pre-emptively, which is a very strange concept.  And we’ll be in no better position to ensure the born child’s happiness or welfare, not especially if he/she is raised by a mother who never wanted him/her.  That sets up a conundrum.  The mother’s rights matter, but so too should respect be paid to the life created within her.

Speaking of conundrums, it appears they abound everywhere these days.  Here is an insightful, thought-provoking article written by Michael Steven Green in the Duke Law Journal (2002) on the paradox existing between our “anarchist” rights against self-incrimination and to bear arms and the “authoritarian” will of the government to maintain order and preserve the “social contract”:

http://www.law.duke.edu/shell/cite.pl?52+Duke+L.+J.+113

I’d like to get back to these topics later when there is more time.  I hope to return to having more spare time to hash over books, articles, and speeches.

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